Dear Prof. Attahiru Jega,

I am constrained to write you this letter as you still remain at the helm of affairs despite calls from well-meaning Nigerians (including myself) that you should be fired before the elections. Now, the reasons may be different, I still believe INEC is ill-prepared for the forth coming elections. The ball is however in your court to prove your critics wrong.

Despite the six week extension given granted, INEC still did not print up to 200,000 PVCs belonging to Lagos. If there is anyone who thinks this will not have a major impact on the outcome of the Presidential election on Saturday should go back and check how Gov. Fashola won Senator Obanikoro in the 2007 gubernatorial election. I hope these PVCs will be made available before April 11th.

As you stated before the council of state, the international community and all Nigerians on Saturday 7th, INEC is adequately prepared but the security chiefs “had in written advisory said they cannot provide statutory security during the February elections because of the commencement of anti- insurgency operations in the north east part of the country on February 14”. Numerous events afterwards have proven that this excuse was not tenable to say the least.

Prof, you have had six weeks anyway to get your acts together so we will have a hitch free elections. This brings me to the reason why I am writing to you. You have said many times that 2015 elections will be different from any other elections held so far. This can only happen if we do not experience any of the following:

1. Late arrival of both sensitive and non-sensitive electoral materials: - This has been an issue since 1999. I want to believe you have put all machinery in position to avoid this. As a matter of fact, we shouldn’t even be discussing this in 2015. We don big pass so.

2. Late arrival of INEC Ad-hoc staff:- This cannot even be an issue in 2015. I want to believe measures have been put in place for INEC staff to pass the night at the RACs (Registration Area Centers). If you leave the RACs by 5 a.m. then by 6.30 – 7 a.m., INEC officials should already be at the polling stations waiting for voters.

3. Late start of Accreditation and voting: - The accreditation time off 8am-1pm and voting from 1:30pm. This can only be sacrosanct if both INEC officials and the materials arrive on time. Kindly ensure!

4. Voters not finding their names on the register: - A situation where this occurs and voters are advised to go to other polling stations to check their names is so old school. This cannot happen in 2015 abeg.

5. Thugs allegedly carted away voting material:- This has remain one of the biggest problems faced on election day. I want to believe we will have a drastic reduction of such incidences.

6. Card Readers issues: - I want to believe with the Pilot exercise carried out; all issues relating to card readers have been taken care of. While I am not too comfortable with the issuance of “Incidence form”, measures should be put in place for checks and balances. If the card readers work excellently well, this singular idea will reduce, if not curb rigging completely.

7. Under-Age voters: - I don’t know INEC tends to prevent under-age voters because we witnessed a lot of under-age voters from a part of the country during the last elections. Some even had the effrontery to be shown on national television claiming to be 13 years old.

8. Votes cast higher than the number of accredited voters: My recommendation here is simple-Cancel the results of any polling unit where such occurs. One will imagine that such cannot happen with the card readers transmitting the number of accredited voters to the central server and the issuance of ballot papers to only accredited voters. But this is Nigeria. Anything can still happen. So an outright cancellation of such results will ensure the credibility of the election results.

---to be contd

Yours Sincerely,
Kevwe Kofi